The federal government says it is committed to repositioning the healthcare sector in Nigeria.

Health minister Osagie Ehanire stated this at the 2022 National and International Adolescent Health Week (IAHW) news conference on Monday in Abuja.

“The federal government remains resolute in ensuring access to quality healthcare to Nigerians. Adolescents constitute a significant proportion, 22 per cent of the population of the country and the progress towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and Universal Health Coverage requires keeping them healthy by appropriate investment and effective coordination,” explained Mr Ehanire.

He added, “I am glad to inform you that we have made modest progress. The National Adolescent Health and development TWG has been repositioned and inaugurated for better performance with membership drawn from relevant stakeholders, including young people-led organisations.”

He added that the government created a budget line at national levels for adolescents and developed a two-year national “costed work plan and prioritised activities for implementation in 2022.”

The minister said the national adolescent health policy was domesticated at the sub-national levels, frontline health workers’ capacities built and strengthened in collaboration with WHO, UNICEF, Lafiya project, etc.

The 2018 National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS), he said, showed that 19 per cent of teenage girls are mothers and pregnant with their first child while 32 per cent do not attend antenatal care.

(NAN)